Grape’s Brian Luscher Does Cane Rosso

by Steven Doyle

Yesterday we mentioned the celebrity chef night at Il Cane Rosso, the hip Neapolitan pizza hangout in Deep Ellum.  We ventured in the wind and rain to find a great crowd assembled  with its first local celeb chef, Brian Luscher of The Grape fame wielding the peel behind the pizza bar.

Luscher is no noob when it comes to pizza, he had spent many years in his formative years working for Pizza Hut. “This was back in the day when they actually made the dough and the sauce fresh each day,” said Luscher.  “I worked the one of the smaller Pizza Huts in Chicago, but we sold more pizza per square foot than any other in Illinois.”   

Cane Rosso owner Jay Jerrier looked on with disbelief as Luscher prepared a pie with the fresh ingredients he prepared in advance at his own restaurant, The Grape.

These ingredients weren’t for the Pizza Hut set, no sir. When Luscher makes a pie, it stays made. The ingredient list was awe-inspiring with its house-made bacon, hot coppa, smoked ham, sweet & hot Italian sausage, Barking Cat Farms hot giardinera, fresh mozzarella, fontina, and San Marzano tomatoes; a pie he calls Pleased to Meat You.

Luscher and Jerrier seemed to have a good evening. They both worked the crowd. They both spent time on their respective laptops gathering voters for the Eater Dallas best restaurant poll, and they made a few pies.

Later in the evening we heard that there will be a Golden Peel for the chef that has the largest percentage of sales for their pie versus pizzas listed on the menu.

Luscher’s pizza was pretty damned strong out of the starting gate. The hot giardinera is still sizzling. Next week Chad Houser and Janice Provost from Parigi will have their way with Jerrier’s  pizza oven.